There are about ten common Facebook marketing tactics. (You can probably think of more, but most are a derivative of one of these ten.) It may surprise you to learn that five of these tactics don’t even work — that’s fully half! Now, no Fire God will suddenly appear to smite you if you happen to have done one of the following things. They are definitely mistakes, but they aren’t irreversible. In fact, they’re really only mistakes in one sense of the word.
My perception of these as “mistakes” isn’t about breaches of the unwritten Facebook etiquette either – I dance on those lines myself from time to time.
Rather, I’m calling them mistakes from a perspective of effectiveness, versus the alternative behavior. Whether they’re wrong in terms of just coming across as rude or politically incorrect is another matter altogether.
Having said that, off we go.
Mistake #1 – Posting Signature Links on Profile Walls with Your Introduction
I asked someone why they did this once, especially since I’d already been to their site and purchased the item they were selling on that page.
She said: “I saw someone else do it.”
“How did it make you feel?” I asked.
“I felt kind of used. But I figured if that’s what it takes to be successful, that’s what I’ll do, even if it doesn’t seem quite right.”
Now that’s deep.
I understand though, because once I made the vow to become successful, I also made a vow to do “whatever it takes”. At the time I thought it meant hard selling and being pushy. I later found it meant hard work, and doing what’s right even if there’s a lazier, easier way.
Even if this was at one time effective in terms of getting clicks from random profile visits, Facebook is now much more stream-driven than it is profile-driven.
And that’s a huge part of why this is a mistake in terms of effectiveness.
Not to mention that people who see these postings as rude or attempts to spam can remove or hide them. They may even drop you as a connection, which cuts you off not just from them, but from their network.
You’re not missing out on anything by omitting that signature link. Your name, hyperlinked to your profile IS your signature link. If your profile is set up correctly, prospects will get to your site from there.
Mistake #2 – Pitching Readmore…
